This whole "2000 hours" thang is meaningless and is basically just another "hollow marketing number" without a given diode current and case temperature (as well as the pernickety, but important definition of failure)
As a rough rule of thumb, for a laser diode when the die temperature increases by 10 degC, the lifetime halves.
i.e. you can run it well below the manufacture's rated current, but poor thermal management of the module -> diode running hot -> very short diode life, well below what the manufactures have quoted.
And seeing as I'm posting in this thread again, it wouldn't be complete without:
- There is no such word as "can't" -
- 60% of the time it works every time -